SECTION 1: HITLER’S LIGHTNING WAR

NON-AGGRESSION PACT

• An agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union in which each promised not to invade the other with military force

• They also agreed to secretly split Poland between the 2 nations

• This pact would allow Germany to focus on France and the Western front without worrying about an attack from the east and granted the Soviet Union the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

BLITZKREIG

• Germany’s newest military strategy which involved fast-moving airplanes and tanks, followed by massive infantry forces

• Took enemies by surprise and quickly overwhelmed them

• Translated to “Lightning War”

• Used to invade Poland-the incident that caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany

RESCUE AT DUNKIRK

• British navy and civilians rescued Allied forces at Dunkirk after the Germans had trapped them there

• 338,000 soldiers were rescued by Navy ships as well as yachts, lifeboats, motor boats and fishing boats

CHARLES DEGUALLE

• A French general who set up a government-in-exile in London after the Nazis conquered France

• Committed all of his energy to reconquering France and used the radio to call on the people of France to join him in resisting the Nazis

WINSTON CHURCHILL

• New British Prime Minister

• Declared that the nation would never give in, even after the Nazis took control of France

• Powerful speaker

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

• After defeating France, the Nazis turned their attention on Great Britain

• Attacked Britain from the air from the summer of 1940 until spring of 1941

• Although Hitler’s forces greatly outnumbered the British RAF (Royal Air Force), the British were able to break German codes and resist German advances

• Hitler called off the attacks in May 1941, leaving Britain free from Nazi control

“THEIR FINEST HOUR”• 'What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over: the Battle

of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour ‘

• Winston Churchill

LUFTWAFFE

• Germany’s Air Force

• Fought in the Battle of Britain

ERWIN ROMMEL

• Commander of the German tank force in Africa, the Afrika Korps

• Sent by Hitler to help the Italians in North Africa after they had been defeated by the British

• Nicknamed the “Desert fox” for his successes in North Africa

OPERATION BARBAROSSA

• Hitler’s plan to break the nonaggression pact and invade the Soviet Union

• Germans used the element of surprise to push Soviet forces back 500 miles into the country

• Soviets fought back by using the scorched-earth policy

• Germans lost 500,000 men to the Soviet winter

ATLANTIC CHARTER

• A declaration of the principles and goals that Churchill and Roosevelt had for the free world

• Upheld free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own government